Spinning — Teen Review

Spinning by Tillie Walden

Spinning, by Tillie Walden, is a graphic autobiography about a young figure skater who fights against prejudices to allow herself to exist. The writer recounts her young life as she grew up and includes milestones such as her figure skating, learning she was gay at the young age of five, and her later sexual assault by her SAT tutor. The story continues on, as the author remembers her first romance with another girl and how she had to fight so hard to allow herself to be who she wants to be, while struggling with her loss of love for her sport. A little bit of research uncovered the fact that this book was first written as a college thesis by the author, who then worked with multiple publishing companies to serialize it as a graphic novel. The book evokes powerful emotions from the reader, ranging from sympathy, to outrage, to a feeling of shared success with the author. The author also often puts gay characters in her stories before her coming out. The book is fairly strong in terms of its message, but the style of the art was rather unappealing to me, as I tend to enjoy more Japanese manga-style artistry. I rate this book a 4/5.